From beyond the grave - Austria's "famous" last words:
Never before have I been eliminated this early in a game. But I knew it from the start. I had been cursed. 
I had played Germany in WB Rd 1, and only barely survived it. Yes, my NMR at the worst possible moment might have played a role in that, but I also like to think that having to play Germany had put me at a disadvantage. So you can imagine my relief when WinterBlitz Round 2 was announced and Mike said that they had managed to assign an outer Power in Rd 2 to almost every player who had played an inner Power in Rd 1. Then I found I had been assigned Austria. Yes, I was one of the few exceptions. That a given I decided to play an aggressive Austria. An Austria that would quickly conquer the Balkans, leaving it to Russia and Turkey to fight over the leftovers. So I ordered all my units south, leaving Budapest and Vienna at the others' mercy. The gamble I took was that Italy would not attack me the first year. And that's where I went wrong: Italy did exactly that and ordered to Tyrolia that Spring with a combined Venice/Tyrolia attack on Triest in the Fall. And again I had gambled wrong: since defending Triest would be the obvious thing to do, I had decided to defend Vienna. One Home SC down after the first year. But at the same time I had taken Serbia and Greece: still +1 SC overall. The bad news was that the England player had abandoned the game (or actually he never showed up in the first place). Big setback for me as Russia no longer would have England's threat in the Nordics and St Petersburg.

Now in 1902 I set out to stop Italy's threat to me. At the start of Spring I had a unit in each of the SCs and used all of them to put pressure on Italy: in Triest and by going for the Ionian Sea. I bounced with Italy in the Ionian but managed to take back Triest. But at a huge cost: Turkey and Russia had allied to drive me out of Serbia. And in Fall Italy returned and took back Triest by force while my units were under attack from Turkish and Russian armies. It was like the whole world had turned against Austria; even the Russian fleet in Sevastopol had been given orders to attack Budapest! Can you imagine?
And with all those units tied up in a very tight spot I had no place left to retreat to. At the start of Winter 1902 I had lost 2 units; half of my army! Then in Winter 1902 I had to disband one more unit as all but one SCs had been taken from me. I had an army sitting in the one remaining SC but knew that hostile armies were sitting in all bordering countries. Chances of survival for that army were less even than none. A disband seemed to most humane thing I could do for them. And I knew that this was the beginning of the end; no chance of recovery with 3 hostile neighbors.

At the start of 1903 with only a fleet left, I decided to give Italy a hard time. Perhaps Italy would make a mistake and I could survive in Tunis. Italy didn't; and that was it for Austria.

Guys, thanks for playing. Joe, you played Italy exactly right, much to my dismay. Again I learnt a lot.
Frank

Now one more year left for me. Probably will be denied access to ION, and ADR - VEN or TRI is highly unlikely either, so that's it for Austria.
And for my WinterBlitz. Ah well, I had a good time with Rd1 and still have DC302 left and waiting for The Dark Ages to kick off. And still GMing DC300. Always fun.Fredrik, thanks for GMing both my WB Rds. Hope to meet you as a rival, uh ally, in another game.
 Frank
2010/4/15 Fredrik Blom <fredrik(at)familjenblom.se>

Blitzers,
The Turks drum on, and are now in possession of Sevastopol. Germany seizes Belgium from the French. Austria is eliminated, and I say thank you to Frank for playing in the Winter Blitz. Good luck in your future games here on Diplomatic Corp.


We have a couple of adjustments due:Austria: Remove 1 (No need to submit an order).Germany: Build 1Italy: Build 1Russia: Build 1Turkey: Build 1




Next turn: Winter 1903 Adjustments















Next Deadline: Friday, 16th of April 2010, 18:00 GMT (6PM).






Fall orders:Austria: F Albania - Trieste (*Bounce*)
England: A Liverpool, no move receivedF London, no move received
France: 

F English Channel Supports A Picardy - BelgiumF Gascony - BrestA Marseilles - Burgundy (*Fails*)A Picardy - Belgium (*Fails*)
Germany: A Belgium Supports A Munich - Burgundy (*Cut*)

F Denmark - North SeaA Munich - BurgundyF North Sea - YorkshireA Paris Supports A Munich - BurgundyA Ruhr Supports A Belgium
Italy: A Budapest Supports A Rumania

F Naples - Tyrrhenian SeaF Trieste - Albania (*Fails*)A Tyrolia - ViennaA Venice - Trieste (*Bounce*)
Russia: F Edinburgh HoldA Galicia Supports A Rumania

A Norway - St PetersburgA Rumania HoldF Sevastopol Supports A Rumania (*Disbanded*)F Skagerrak - NorwayA Ukraine Supports A Rumania
Turkey: 

A Ankara - SevastopolA Armenia Supports A Ankara - SevastopolF Black Sea Convoys A Ankara - SevastopolA Bulgaria - Rumania (*Fails*)A Greece Supports A SerbiaA Serbia Supports A Bulgaria - Rumania




Next turn: Winter 1903 Adjustments







































Next Deadline: Friday, 16th of April 2010, 18:00 GMT (6PM).










/Fredrik